Nexters is a video game company headquartered in Limassol, Cyprus. The company story dates back to 2010 when Andrey Fadeev and Boris Gertsovskiy met. The company is best known for its misleading ads for the mobile games Throne Rush and Hero Wars,[1] which attracted regulatory scrutiny in Germany due to the use of prurient content in ad campaigns on social media platforms such as Facebook.[2] Nexters is one of the top five independent mobile game companies in Europe.[3]
History
Nexters Studio was established in 2014 by Andrey Fadeev and Boris Gertsovskiy. Before founding Nexters, Gertsovskiy operated his own gaming studio Crazy Bit, while Fadeev led Progrestar, a social games development company renowned for its viral free-to-play game Friend Factory, which attracted over 20 million users. In 2013, Progrestar launched Throne Rush, a strategy game that became one of the top social games on Facebook and VK the following year.[3][4]
In 2014, after knowing each other since 2010, Fadeev and Gertsovskiy decided to merge their companies. That same year, they made the decision to open a Nexters' headquarters in Cyprus.[3] This led to Nexters' first release, Island Experiment, a casual game for social networks.[3]
In 2016, Nexters released Hero Wars, a free-to-play browser and action RPG, next year a mobile version for Android and iOS was released.[1] In July 2023, Nexters underwent a rebranding, renaming the Facebook and browser version to Hero Wars: Dominion Era and the mobile version to Hero Wars: Alliance.[5] Hero Wars is a midcore game with intense gameplay in short-session cycles, available in over 100 countries. Over the past two years, monthly active users have grown 8.5-fold, reaching six million, according to Nexters.[6] In 2014, the advertising campaigns for the games Hero Wars and Island Experiment on social media attracted regulatory scrutiny in Germany.[7]
The popularity of Hero Wars significantly boosted interest in Nexters and attracted new investments. In 2018, Igor and Dmitry Bukhman, the founders of Playrix, acquired the investors' shares in Nexters. According to Nexters, in 2018, the company made $48 million in sales.[6] In November 2019, Nexters entered the Top 10 largest European mobile developers. Already in 2019, almost 95% of Nexters' revenue came from mobile games in international markets, and revenue grew almost 15 times,[8] generated $318 million in bookings and $120 million in free cash flow to equity (FCFE) in 2020. As of 2020, 35% of the company’s net bookings came from the United States, 23% from Europe, and 19% from Asia.[3][9] Its flagship product, Hero Wars RPG, was downloaded 36 million times in 2020 on iOS and Android.[10]
In February 2021, Nexters announced it would go public on Nasdaq via a SPAC deal with Kismet Acquisition One Corp.[6][11] Kismet invested $50 million, while Nexters raised an additional $50 million from the Abu Dhabi-based Mubadala Investment Company and VPE Capital in July 2021. In August, Nexters completed the merger with Kismet Acquisition One, which valued Nexters at $1.9 billion.[12][13][14] Shares started trading on Nasdaq under the ticker symbols GDEV.[15] The deal brought Nexters approximately $150 million, which the company planned to use for expansion in the global market.[6][12][11]
In 2021, in addition to the released Chibi Island at the end of the year the company soft-launched the new casual game Island Questaway. Nexters plans to launch a match-3-style game, Riddle Island,[3] in 2022.
In January 2022, Nexters announced plans to acquire 100% of Cubic Games, 48.8% of MX Capital Limited (RJ Games), and 49.5% of Castcrown Limited (Royal Ark). The total value of these deals amounted to nearly $100 million.[11]
On February 28, 2022, Nasdaq halted the trading of Nexters' stock due to regulatory concerns as the stock exchange sought more information following economic sanctions imposed on Russia after its invasion of Ukraine.[16][17] On March 16, 2023, Nasdaq resumed trading Nexters' stock.[18][19]
In June 2022, the company launched a global relocation program, moving the vast majority of critical personnel from Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus to Cyprus, Kazakhstan, and Armenia.[20] At the same time, its Russia-based subsidiaries were divested by transferring the gaming business in Russia to local management.[21][22]
On June 22, 2023, Nexters Inc. restructured into the holding GDEV, becoming the largest wholly-owned subsidiary of GDEV along with current Nexters’ subsidiaries Cubic Games and Dragon Machines. More studios are to be added in the future. As a consequence, GDEV replaced Nexters as the publicly-traded entity on NASDAQ.[23]
Games
| Year | Title | Genre | Platform | Notes | Ref |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2013 | Throne Rush | Strategy | iOS, Android, Facebook | ||
| 2016 | Hero Wars | Fantasy RPG | iOS, Android, Facebook, Web Browser | ||
| 2021 | Chibi Island | Farming Adventure | iOS, Android | [24] | |
| 2021 | Island Questaway | Farming Adventure | iOS, Android, Web Browser | [24] | |
| 2023 | Puzzle Odyssey | Tile-matching | TBD | [24] |
References
- ^ a b "Gamers are beginning to accept misleading ads". VentureBeat. 2023-04-04. Archived from the original on 2024-05-19. Retrieved 2024-08-01.
- ^ "Werberat rügt sexistische Reklame für Videospiele". Der Spiegel (in German). 2023-05-16. Retrieved 2024-06-25.
- ^ a b c d e f "«Ребята совершили невозможное»: как российский разработчик игр Nexters за год вырос в 15 раз и почти стал «единорогом»" ["The team accomplished the impossible": How the Russian game developer Nexters grew 15 times in a year and nearly became a unicorn]. Forbes.ru (in Russian). Archived from the original on 2024-10-07. Retrieved 2025-02-06.
- ^ "GDEV Holding: Portfolio Companies and Growth Strategies". siliconcanals.com. 2024-11-01. Retrieved 2025-02-06.
- ^ Obedkov, Evgeny (2024-07-24). "Hero Wars: Alliance hits $1.5 billion in lifetime revenue while surpassing 150 million downloads". Game World Observer. Retrieved 2025-02-12.
- ^ a b c d Takahashi, Dean (2021-02-01). "Russian mobile game publisher Nexters will go public via a SPAC at $1.9 billion value". VentureBeat. Retrieved 2025-02-12.
- ^ "Hero Wars: Werberat rügt sexistische Werbung für Videospiele". Der Spiegel (in German). 2023-05-16. ISSN 2195-1349. Retrieved 2025-02-12.
- ^ "NEXTERS rates within EU's top 10 most earning mobile developers". www.cyprusprofile.com. Retrieved 2025-02-12.
- ^ Dean Takahashi (2021-02-01). "Russian mobile game publisher Nexters will go public via a SPAC at $1.9 billion value". VentureBeat. Retrieved 2021-04-11.
- ^ Irina Yuzbekova (2021-02-01). "Российский разработчик игр Nexters выйдет на биржу с оценкой $1,9 млрд". Forbes Russia (in Russian). Retrieved 2021-04-11.
- ^ a b c Orr, Aaron (2022-01-27). "Nexters acquires 3 mobile studios for $100 million". www.pocketgamer.biz. Retrieved 2025-02-14.
- ^ a b "Разработчик игр Nexters закрыл сделку по слиянию с компанией экс-главы «Мегафона»" [Game developer Nexters completes a merger deal with the company of the former CEO of MegaFon]. Forbes.ru (in Russian). 2021-08-27. Retrieved 2025-02-14.
- ^ "Nexters Global, the Owner of Blockbuster Mobile Game Hero Wars, to Go Public Via Merger With Kismet Acquisition One SPAC". nasdaq.com/. Nasdaq. 2021-02-01. Retrieved 2025-02-14.
- ^ Takahashi, Dean (2021-02-01). "Russian mobile game publisher Nexters will go public via a SPAC at $1.9 billion value". VentureBeat. Retrieved 2025-02-14.
- ^ "Nexters and Kismet Acquisition One Corp Complete Business Combination; Shares Will Begin Trading as "GDEV" on Nasdaq". Archived from the original on 2024-04-22. Retrieved 2025-02-14.
- ^ Semenov, Alexander (2022-08-04). "Ivan Tavrin resigns from the post of chairman of the Board of directors of Nexters and from the company. Igor Bukhman and Boris Herzovsky are also leaving the council". app2top.com (in Russian). Retrieved 2025-02-14.
- ^ McCrank, John (March 2022). "NYSE, Nasdaq halt trading in stocks of Russia-based companies". Reuters.
- ^ "NYSE,". Nasdaq. March 15, 2023.
- ^ GDEV, GDEV (2023-12-19). "GDEV announces commencement of self tender offer to purchase for cash a minimum of 15,000,000, up to 20,000,000 of its ordinary shares at a purchase price of $2.00 per ordinary share". Yahoo Finance. Retrieved 2025-02-14.
- ^ "Крупный разработчик мобильных игр Nexters открыл офис в Армении" [The major mobile game developer Nexters has opened an office in Armenia.]. Armenia Today (in Russian). 2022-07-13. Retrieved 2025-02-14.
- ^ "Разработчик игр Nexters передаст бизнес в России локальному менеджменту". Forbes.ru (in Russian). 2022-07-12. Retrieved 2025-02-14.
- ^ "Nexters to transfer Russian subsidiaries to local management". interfax.com. Retrieved 2025-02-14.
- ^ "Nexters changes corporate name to GDEV Inc,". Seeking Alpha. June 22, 2023.
- ^ a b c Anastasia Karpova (2020-09-29). ""Ребята совершили невозможное": как российский разработчик игр Nexters за год вырос в 15 раз и почти стал "единорогом"". Forbes Russia (in Russian). Retrieved 2021-04-11.